WHY EVERY ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS A BUSINESS COACH
Research suggests that working with a business coach can increase your profit margin by an average of 46%. However, further statistics reveals that 42% of businesses do not actually use a business coach.
Business coaches tend to be experienced entrepreneurs themselves or have a specific niche in a topic. For example, I wanted to use my knowledge and skills developed as a qualified Chartered Accountant and the experience I’d gained working within a global marketing agency to help educate creatives with their business acumen. Every entrepreneur needs a business coach and here are 5 reasons why…
1. It’s a Lonely World
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. You need to surround yourself with supporters and other founders who have your back and actually want you to succeed. In the startup world, entrepreneurs often find themselves alone facing unknown situations and new challenges. A business coach can help to give an objective view on your business and identify the reality of scenarios without any vested emotions.
You may at one point find yourself in a stage where all your friends are still working in 9–5 jobs (and there’s nothing wrong with that) but it may mean that they won’t understand the struggles your faced with when starting a business. Thus, making it difficult for you to go to them for advice and for them to understand what you’re going through. Start-up founders don’t often have a big team to begin with and may also miss the social aspect of being in an office surrounded by colleagues.
While running your own business can be really rewarding, there’s no denying it can be overwhelming and there comes a point where you constantly feel like you’re up against time and run the risk of burnout. When you work with a business coach, however, you’ll have someone in your corner who can assist you through the challenges you will inevitably face and serve as a source of experience and expertise that you can rely on when things get tough.
Question: Are you part of a community?
2. Too Many Opinions
We often allow the expectations of parents, partners, friends, managers, or teachers control our lives. But if you’re driven by peer pressure, you’re always going to be worried by what others might think. And unfortunately, those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.
It’s exactly the same for startup founders. They can easily be swayed by the opinions and expectations of others as to what should and shouldn’t be done. It’s also really important to note that often when we get feedback from friends and family, they aren’t necessarily your target market so what they like or dislike isn’t always a true representation of who you’re trying to build your business for.
I remember at the very early stages of my business when I was designing the logo, I would ask my mum for her opinion and her response would always be that she loved every single one. As much as mum’s are great, unfortunately she was not my target market. Equally, partners and friends will eventually get tired of hearing your ideas.
Question: Who do you share and bounce ideas off of with? Who do you turn to for guidance and insight?
3. Accountability
Coaching is not counseling or mentorship. Business coaching is a goal-directed and action-oriented approach to helping dreams become a tangible reality. The most common challenge I’ve come across with the majority of my clients when starting out is ‘self-belief’. It can be scary thinking about your dreams when you haven’t started, because you then start to question whether it’s even possible at all.
In fear and self-doubt, you’ll end up talking yourself out of it and settling for the comfortable mediocre life. But playing things safe is never going to lead to a life of fulfillment.
I work with individuals to help them simplify things and organize all the messy ideas swimming around in their heads and to also step out of their comfort zone. It’s about helping them to identify what does (and doesn’t) work.
The best way to explain this is by using the example of an athlete. Every high-performance athlete needs a coach. Talent and training alone are not enough, you also need self-awareness, confidence, motivation, self-discipline, and many more traits, qualities, habits and skills. The same can be said for high-performance entrepreneurs.
“My biggest fear is being in the same place this time next year”
I wanted to apply this same concept to my personal fitness. My goal was to tone up and I thought it would be far more efficient to hire a personal trainer. Someone who would educate me and keep me accountable; all of which would help me get to my desire body type much faster had I done it alone. I also found there was a psychological aspect to it; once I had invested in a personal trainer I was more likely to show up with 100% commitment and take myself and my fitness regime more seriously.
Question: Who is holding you accountable?
4. Save Time
Working with a business coach is one of the quickest short-cut routes to success, yet the same logic is often overlooked when it comes to growing a brand or business. Most people have exactly the same thought patterns along the lines of ‘it’s ok I can just wing it, it’ll be fine’.
Coaches also need coaches, I had invested in my first one very shortly after I had started the business and my only regret is that I wish I had invested in her earlier. Reason being is that you get to buy into their skills, expertise and network. You also get to buy into the experience they have from building their own businesses as well as all the lessons they’ve learnt along the way with other clients they are coaching.
Online articles and books are great for getting things started but they can be easily limited to that. Every business is unique and often the generic advice found online is not the right substitute for personalised guidance. And let’s be honest, no one wants to spend their Sundays reading ‘accounting 101’. Learning in theory is one thing, but practically is another.
Having 1:1 tailored advice with an experienced individual and being able to bounce back ideas makes the feedback far more valuable.
5. Continued Self-Growth and Development
At the very beginning stages of starting any business, there can be a lot of blurred lines between the founder and the start-up itself. So, it’s essential that every entrepreneur is consistently investing the time in continued growth, skill development and the self-awareness of habits, traits and decisions that impact their companies.
Muhammad Ali once said:
“It is not the mountain ahead to climb that wears you out; it is the pebble in your shoe.”
Coaching creates a powerful alliance between the coach and the client to identify and remove the pebbles in your shoe. The relationship is designed to set you up for a lifelong process of human learning. A business coach knows that they have not learned everything but that they know everything they need to learn.
Question: What would it feel like to adopt the mindset of being a constant learner in life?
There are three stages of entrepreneurship I can help with…
Birth Stage
“I have a new idea but don’t know where to start!”
I can help you with the whole process of setting up your business, writing the business plan, over-viewing the financials and defining your mission and goals. These key topics are the foundations and bed-rock to any start-up and putting these in place will strategically set you up for success.
Growth Stage
“I have taken the jump or I’m working on my side hustle but need direction”
This is good news because it means you’ve already conquered the hard part of getting started. Now you just need more guidance and direction on how to prioritize and unlock any untapped income.
Maturity Stage
“I am an existing business owner and I’ve been working on my business for a while, but it’s become a bit stale and I need new inspiration and strategies to drive profit”
As a seasoned entrepreneur, it may be that you’ve hit a road block in your company’s growth. I can help rejuvenate your business and take it to the next level. Whether the problem lies within strategy and commercials or re-branding and re-positioning within the market, I can help you to take it to the next level.
A former qualified Chartered Accountant, Karmen made the transition from Financial Controller of a global advertising creative agency to start her own venture. Karmen founded another startup story, a community-based media and business consultancy targeted for young startups and creative entrepreneurs.
